Recently, Asia's largest automotive lightweighting as the main research direction Advanced Composite Technology Center (ACTC R & D Center, tentatively scheduled) settled in Changshu National Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone. The technical center was jointly established by Frauhhofer ICT and HRC. Earlier this year, Fraunhofer ICT and his Chinese partner have reached a framework agreement on cooperation in the development of high-performance composite products and processes.

Frank Henning

Since joining Fraunhofer ICT as Composite Material Team Leader in 1997 to date, Dr. Frank Henning has more than 20 years of experience in materials science. He is currently a professor of lightweight technology at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, director of the research center for light vehicle solutions in Germany, vice president of Fraunhofer ICT and chairman of SAMPE Germany.

The first R&D center in China

The joint initiative of the Automotive Lightweight Advanced Composites Technology Center will be the first Fraunhofer R & D center to participate. Earlier, the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology had never participated in the establishment of any R&D center in China.

This will be an active attempt to adapt to market demand, with scientific research as the main practice and business applications as the ultimate goal. The cooperation project settled in Jiangsu not only to promote the rapid development of China's composite materials applications, but also for the automobile industry in Changshu and Jiangsu Province to contribute to the transformation.

Frank Henning, PhD, associate dean of Fraunhofer ICT, said in an interview this month that he hopes to jointly establish an advanced composite material research and development center in Changshu National Hi-Tech Development Zone to actively promote the rapid development of composite materials applications in China.

Jiangsu is a large economy, science and technology, culture, Jiangsu high-performance composite materials industry has broad prospects for development. Jiang Hong, deputy director of Jiangsu Science and Technology Department, expressed his strong support for this cooperation. He said: "In the future, we will provide relevant policies, funds and technical support to cooperate with Changshu Municipal Government to assist them in establishing a research institute in Changshu National Hi-tech Development Zone."

The Institute focuses on the composite material industry.

In recent years, the development of composite materials market in China has received more and more international attention, especially in the middle and lower reaches of the industry is more popular products, "two-thirds of global innovation are based on material innovation," Frank Henning Dr. pointed out. Taking the example of smart phones that are continuously updated and iterated, he said, "The technological iteration in the field of composite materials has largely created the possibilities for smart phone extensions, so material technology innovation is a very important foundation for future innovation."

At the same time, Dr. Frank Henning pointed out that "there is not enough material innovation alone, from the discovery or invention in the laboratory to the practical application in the industry, there are many important aspects of the development of composite products, through some Simulation tools to product design simulation optimization to verify the product structure is reasonable, can meet the performance requirements, etc., is that we have to verify that the carbon fiber composite materials in the design compared with traditional materials is a great advantage, the design Potential can be tapped and implemented through simulation analysis and demonstrated by adequate test data to demonstrate superior product performance. In addition, it is important to consider whether the product can be manufactured in industrial quantities in the initial stages of design, with a focus on stable batch quality "

Thus, in addition to keeping a close eye on the development of China's composite materials industry, he has also been looking for suitable partners to participate in this transformation. Dr. Frank Henning expressed his full affirmation to HRC's forward-looking layout in this field, and believes that the cooperation between the two parties follows the trend. "Turning knowledge into productivity is a consensus of both parties," he said. He expressed his optimism about the future of high-performance composites and looked forward to their cooperation as the best practice in the field.

Composites Technology Center main direction settled in the research and application of automotive light industry

The preparatory advanced composite technology center's main research direction, will be located in the automotive light industry research and application. This coincides with the expectation of the Technical Center in the Changshu National Hi-Tech Development Zone. According to Dr. Frank Henning, this will be of great significance to the optimization and upgrading of the automobile industry and new material industries in China and Germany.

Fraunhofer ICT has been involved in the lightweight research and development of all BMW models and is authoritative in lightweighting automobiles and mass production of composite parts. HRC is the only supplier of several professional automotive composite parts and components in China One of the first domestic new energy vehicles carbon fiber parts of the bulk supply of project supply orders in the bag. In the future, the two parties will conduct stable and efficient exchange and cooperation in many fields such as material research, design optimization and preparation technology, and strive to achieve common development of new products and further standardize and optimize product development and manufacturing processes.

Dr. Frank Henning stressed that China needs to draw lessons from Germany in formulating industry standards and intellectual property rights so as to lay the foundations for research and application of carbon fiber composite products that can fully adapt to the Chinese market and have an international strategic vision and realize commercial and technological The value of integration, opening up a new way of resource sharing in the new materials field in the era of interconnection, will allow the spring of new energy vehicles to arrive soon.